INS Brahmaputra incident at Mumbai dockyard, in which Indian Navy's multirole frigate suffered damage due to fire onboard, has brought the situation surrounding Indian Navy ships to the fore. Even though the fire was brought under control, the ship lost some of its buoyancy and tilted on its left side, or port side as it is called in shipping and naval parlance.
INS Brahmaputra has joined an unfortunately long list of India's naval assets damaged or destroyed by accidents. These ships and submarines, built to guard Indian coasts, became casualty of factors long thought to be preventable.
INS Brahmaputra: Major Facts
INS Brahmaputra is first indigenously built guided missile frigate of 'Brahmaputra' class. Indian Navy commissioned this ship in April 2000. Its staff includes 40 officers and 330 sailors.
The 125-metre-warship has displacement of 5300 tonnes and is capable of reaching speed of 30 knots. Its firepower includes surface-to-air, surface-to-surface missile in addition to medium-range guns, radars, sonars, anti-submarine rockets and much more. The ship also has capability to operate Seaking and Chetak helicopters from its deck.
It will indeed be a herculean task to make the tilted ship upright. Media reports say that Mumbai dock does not have this capability and India will have to hire foreign firms to make INS Brahmaputra straight again.
Any accident and loss of life is a setback to India and no such accidents should ideally take place. What can be done to prevent such setbacks?
"Have your processes in order. Learn from you mistakes," said Shaurya Chakra winner Indian Navy Captain (Retired) Dilip Donde.
Indian Navy, like any other professional armed force, has strict procedures and protocols in place. Procedures are also in place for when the ship is undergoing repairs.
But is a ship more vulnerable when it is being repaired?
"Yes," said Captain (Retd.) Sarabjeet Singh Parmar, who has commanded ships while they underwent repairs and refits.
"You can't expect a ship to behave during a refit," he said, adding that keeping a ship floating and upright is a challenging, delicate task during repairs.
An operational ship on mission in the sea is a perfectly functional combat unit. But during repairs, things can get tricky as for example, if a part is removed from right side (Starboard side), the ship becomes heavier on the right (Port side) and vice-versa.
It is critical at this stage to maintain an observe the list (leaning) of the ship. The list can be controlled up to a certain point but if it crosses a certain limit, there always is a chance of ship losing its balance in water and listing to one side completely, or even capsizing.
"All navies in the world face this problem," said Captain (Retd.) Parmar, "It does not matter if it is Indian Navy or American or Chinese. These factors plague everyone."
In his opinion, the fire on INS Brahmaputra was caused by short circuit or sparks from welding operations. Since fuel and ammunitions are removed from the ship during refit, these may not have been responsible for the fire following which the ship tilted to one side. By the time of publishing of this story, an enquiry into INS Brahmaputra incident was ordered by the Indian Navy. The cause of the fire will be announced after completion of the inquiry.
"Procedures and protocols are there for every function. If a welder is repairing part of the ship, a firefighter needs to be present beside him," he said.
So what can be done to prevent such incidents?
"It should be checked if there was any error in following procedure," said Captain (Retd.) Parmar.
The inquiry must take a look at the rules currently guiding repair functions and must be changed if required.
Since this is the third incident of an Indian Navy ship getting damaged at Mumbai, the headquarters of India's Western Naval Command is facing a lot of flak. But the retired navy captain opined that it would be premature to blame the whole dock right now.
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